Sept. 9, 2000

Recap |  Box Score

Maryland Head Coach Ron Vanderlinden Postgame Quotes- Maryland vs. Temple

Opening Statement: It's certainly good to open the season with a win. Watching Temple a week ago, I knew there was going to be some uphill sledding today by the way they just dominated the game at Navy. Their defense is very aggressive and they run very well. We did not do a good job up front handling their penetrations. To say the least, there's far too often where we'd get hit in the backfield and we have got to shore up our offensive line.

"On a positive note, I was very impressed with our defense, particularly our pass rush. Kris Jenkins came to play today...I thought he played very well up front. Michael Whaley, I mentioned earlier, is going to be a good pass rusher for us, and he showed you that that's going to happen. Charles Hill played hard and really played himself to exhaustion out there- it was hot out there.

"We made the plays when we needed them. Offensively, we are our own worst enemy. Our inability to seal penetration hurt us greatly. We put the ball on the ground far too often. In every case, it's that first-game thing. I'm fortunate we got through it. "

On Shaun Hill starting at quarterback instead of Calvin McCall: "Calvin McCall was scheduled to start the game. He violated a team rule, so he was penalized a start."

"Brooks Barnard was huge today. Man, did he give us good field position when we were backed up?! All day long, he put our defense in good situations (field-position wise). The defense handled a couple of different sudden-change type of situations well. I'm very proud of them. I'm also proud of Brian Kopka for stepping up and kicking that ball through at the end when we needed it."

"We made the plays when we had to, we took a team which had a game under its belt and an extra week of practice and a lot of confidence coming off a big win and we were able to find a way to win. Hopefully, we're going to make a lot of improvements from this week to next week playing West Virginia down there after they've had a week off. We're going to have to make a lot of improvements, particularly up front offensively."

On LaMont Jordan: "I did think on three critical plays that he was sensational. Two goal-line plays, he was untacklable. He just bulled his way into the endzone and there aren't many backs that can do that. Then, on the critical third down at the end of the game when you have to have it, he made the first down. He did about the last two, three yards on his own and that's what big- time players do. They make those plays, and that's what LaMont did."

On Jeff Dugan: "Jeff's going to be a good player. If that one ball had gotten thrown a little lower, he would've gotten into the endzone. That was a nice play. That was a big play. We'd been saving that play- we thought we were going to get him and we got him. He made a nice catch. I think he's going to be a great player before he leaves Maryland."

"We just made too many mistakes tonight. It was a game of mistakes offensively, and we're fortunate to win."

"We just had way too much leakage in the backfield, too much penetration, that we didn't handle up front. We knew they were good up front, we saw last week they did that all game at Navy. We were prepared for it, we just didn't block it as well as we need to."

POST-GAME COMMENTS FROM LAMONT JORDAN

Post-game comments from Maryland Heisman candidate LaMont Jordan after his two-touchdown performance in the Terps' season-opening 17-10 victory over Temple Sept. 9.

"I didn't feel too good today. I didn't have the type of performance I was expecting of myself. I put pressure on myself to get out fast, and it had nothing to do with the Heisman talk. Personally I wanted to get off to a good start, and I didn't get off to a good start today."

On Temple's defense: "They were in the backfield a couple of times, and they almost took the handoff a few times. It was just that type of day. They were flying to the ball. That's what I expected after watching film on Temple."

"Today I made some mistakes out there. It just wasn't the type of game I expected."

"We're very happy to come out with the win. The defense played well enough for us to win. They made a lot of plays, and [the offense] has to go out there and sustain some drives. We hurt ourselves. We missed a lot of assignments out there today. We were lucky to get away with a win."

"I'm going to treat this game like I've treated every game for the past three years. I'll enjoy it for the rest of the weekend, think about it, and then come Monday it's on to West Virginia."

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